The future of Lismore’s award winning
Post office is in the balance. Sub Postmaster David Wilson and Postwoman
Alison Maclean, as well as the entire island, are holding their breath and hoping
that the Trade and Industry Secretary, Alistair Darling, is not planning to include it on his
list of 4000 post offices he intends to axe. Darling is focussed on profit and says that e mailing,
internet banking etc have meant that the Post Office is losing core business all
the time. He will announce the list some time in March.

There are 14000 rural post offices and only a small proportion
are in profit. David tells me that Lismore is not on one of
the exempted postcodes and neither is it ever going to make a profit with such a
small population. But islanders totally rely on it for a
great spread of reasons: it's a place to bank, to shop by mail, to pay bills and
much much more. The reality is that it is the hub of the island, an essential
community service and this should be on the balance sheet somewhere, and, despite what Darling says, without it
Lismore would lose the equivalent of a vital organ. For businesses
it would be catastrophic if they had to travel to the mainland to trade. And of
course the Post Office draws people into the shop and helps makes that essential
island business viable.

The Post Bus is a separate enterprise run by Royal Mail
with a subsidy from Argyll and Bute. Alison not only delivers the mail but also has
the school bus contract. The Post Bus can also take tourists on its route which
it does often in the Summer. The two businesses run in tandem.